GVE, Nigeria

Project summary

The Green Village Electricity (GVE) project is a rural electrification scheme designed to provide clean and reliable energy to off-grid rural communities in Nigeria based on a Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) revenue col­lection system.

Developed by GVE Projects Ltd, the plan is to construct an isolated mini electricity distribution grid in 72 villages across seven states in Nigeria, each with an installed capacity of between 24kW to 500kW, depending on the size of the community.

The developer has 12 operational sites to date, with a total installed capacity of 500kWp, but over the course of the project plans to scale this up to 17.8MW, providing energy access to up to 144,000 people.

Camco-managed REPP is providing US$288,000 development capital funding and access to long-term debt to help build the project into a sustainable business that can attract funding from private sector financial markets, while at the same time contributing towards its own objective of transforming the energy sectors in target countries.

Proving the business model and viability of the project is expected to then attract international investors interested in developing the small-scale renewable energy sector in Nigeria.

Mini-grids offer multiple benefits for Nigeria’s rural communities, where access to electricity is sometimes as low as 5% of households. The GVE pilot projects, for example, reported a 40% reduction in energy-related expenditure for their customers, while also increasing productivity, particularly for agro-processing facilities.

“The GVE solar mini-grid project has revolutionised our community. From our children being able to study at night, which has led to significantly boosted academic performance, to improved health care access and an influx of economic activities, everything we are witnessing is thanks to having the very reliable electricity supply that the mini-grid provides.”